1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electronic device having a display. The present invention specifically related to a display for providing multiple images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices (such as portable telephones, electronic organisers or personal digital assistantsxe2x80x94PDA""s) are becoming increasingly complex, and it is now routine for such devices to use:a pixel display to display information to the user of the device. Indeed, the user interface for such devices offers an increasing number of options to the user, but of course the amount of information which can be displayed on the small display screen of a hand-held device is limited.
Although screen resolution is improving rapidly, the limited area available for the screen will always provide a limitation to the amount of information which can be simply displayed in small hand-held or portable devices such as mobile telephones. Larger amounts of data may be made available through the use of nested menus and tree-structured data storage arrangements, but with a small display available, the user may be faced with a requirement to repeatedly select from the limited available displayed options and wait while the next navigation level of the interface is accessed in order to access even relatively close branches of a data tree.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved electronic device that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.
According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic device having a display and an image deflection system overlying the display, wherein the display is controlled to provide at least two independent display images which, when displayed through the image deflection system, are individually visible from different viewing positions relative to the display.
Owing to the invention, it is possible to provide a device that can present a greater volume of useful data for a given display size.
The electronic device of the invention has an image deflection system overlying the display so that the device can provide multiple views to the user, each view being visible from different viewing positions.
The use of lenticular screens over display devices is well known for providing autostereoscopic images to the user, and the deflection system may comprise a lenticular screen. In autostereoscopic devices, the lenticular screen provides viewing positions for different images which are spaced by a distance corresponding to the separation of human eyes. In this way, different images are directed to the left and right eyes of the user so as to generate the perception of a stereo image without requiring the user to wear, for example, spectacles having different coloured lenses.
To generate stereo images, the lenticles of the lenticular screen extend from the top to bottom of the screen so that a lateral shift of the viewing position relative to the screen results in different images being visible.
The lenticles in the image deflection system of the present invention may extend across the display so that different images are visible as a function of the angle of inclination of the viewer with respect to the screen. In this way, a user may view the different images by tilting the device about a horizontal axis.
Each lenticle may be associated with three or more display images. For example, a first main image may be provided at a natural position of the device with respect to the user. Tilting the device one way may result in an image being displayed which represents the previous screen of the user interface display. Tilting the device in the other direction may provide explanation regarding the options presented to the user at that time.
The display preferably comprises a pixel display, for example a liquid crystal display, and the device may be a mobile telephone or television, although other options will become apparent to the skilled reader on reading the following description of preferred embodiments.